


Wrought Iron Heart

by Forthelore



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, But Especially Tony, Everyone needs a freaking hug, Slight IFW Fixit, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 10:49:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15750180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forthelore/pseuds/Forthelore
Summary: Prompt: Imagine Person A losing their best friend and Person B helping them cope.Steve can't seem to get over the loss of Bucky after Thanos' snap. But, it seems that Tony is in the same boat.





	Wrought Iron Heart

**Author's Note:**

> I know I have an open story I'm supposed to be working on--two actually--but I've been hit pretty hard with a bout of depression. So honestly, I'm finding it a bit hard to focus on anything longer than a few thousand words at the moment, and I don't want my lack of focus to mess up the plot lines. So I hope you guys can forgive me for getting a few one shots up instead!

Wraught Iron Heart  
Steve stared down into the city that never seemed to stop bustling below his feet. The faces that he thought he had loved and missed never even glanced up at him as he stood on the ledge of the building. 

He had only been back in New York for about two months now—Thanos had been defeated and people were still popping up. But there had been no Bucky, and no Vision. No Wanda, no Natasha, and he hadn’t heard anything about Clint on if he had disappeared. Tony had only just made it back and he had yet to make any contact with him.

In essence, Steve Rogers was a lonely son of a bitch. But he couldn’t really blame anyone else. From his own understanding, and what he was able to bribe away from Happy when they had bumped into each other at the nearest Walmart, apparently, Tony wasn’t handling the missing Spider Man very well. The way that Happy had described it, the inventor hardly ever left the lab and when he did he was like a ghost of himself. He stumbled around the labs, hands empty and wringing as the wrinkles came through more and more.

He had aged nearly thirty years since the last time Steve had seen him.

“Steve?” The inventor whispered exhaustively as he made his way across the rooftop towards the world’s very first Super Soldier. “What are you doing up here?” 

Admittedly, Steve had expected the man to be drunk out of his right mind; words slurred, and face sloppy, probably a bit of spittle and food stuck to the edges of his mouth. But when the man stepped into the light, he simply looked as if he hadn’t slept in months—as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders and there was no way that he could get rid of it. Then he stood beside Captain America himself, and Steve was shocked. The man looked, for once, smaller than everything else around him. He wasn’t that big name Stark anymore. Whatever had happened on Titan had destroyed the Tony Stark that he knew. It had broke him down, tore his ego and emotions limb from limb and left everyone else with the husk that was the man standing beside him.

“Just...thinking I guess.” Steve sighed dragging a hand through his shaggy hair. The urge to get it cut bubbled beneath the surface of his hand as it did every time he touched it. “What brought you up here?”

“Hoping to catch a glimpse,” Tony sighed wrapping his arms around himself as he glanced over the towers and skyscrapers of New York. His weary eyes scanned every inch of the horizon, searching for Spider Man. Steve knew the man didn’t expect the kid to show up, but he also understood the fact that he would probably never stop looking.

“Tony,” Steve glanced over at him, tears building behind his lids. “You think they’ll ever make it back? Everyone else came back...So what’s taking them so long?”

“I don’t know,” Tony shook his head and drug a trembling hand over his face. He didn’t bother trying to hide the tears as the thought bounced around inside of his head. “I talked to Strange a few days ago...He says they’re still in the soul stone, so there is still the possibility...but they don’t have much longer, ya know? I just...I asked if there was a way I could help him...Get him to understand that I need him and that May...that his aunt needs him desperately. But...”

“But he doesn’t know, either?” Blue eyes glanced up towards the sky. Once upon a time he had believed that there was a heaven somewhere in the clouds, but after Thanos, after the battle of New York, after having to run for so long he was left wondering. Was it heaven, or was what everyone claimed to be just the soul stone sucking them in for its own selfish power?

“Yea,” Tony’s voice cracked; his walls and reserves were breaking. If this went on for much longer he wouldn’t be able to hold himself together. He would collapse under the weight of his own expectations.

“Tony,” Steve turned to the man but he had already turned back towards the door. His hand crested over the handle, and Steve couldn’t find it within himself to stop the man from walking away. “I’m sorry.” He whispered, shoulders drooping; slumping in grief and defeat. 

Unfortunately, things didn’t seem to get better. With no Spider Man on the streets, crime was at an all time high. And without Bucky, Steve couldn’t seem to get his head together long enough to focus on helping clear the streets. Every body with thick shoulders, every person that passed him with long black hair, and every hand that clasped around his arm was the excitement that he was back. And every time he turned to call out to his best friend, the excitement was dashed. It was tossed to the ground and stomped on. 

“Get back!” He yelled one day as he helped a squad of police officers push back a rioting crowd. Something had fallen from the sky in a fiery ball, and landed just inside the city. The Police had wanted to get to it first, but everyone in the area had picked up on it. “I’m sorry, but we have someone coming to check it out!” He called into the crowd as they surged forward once more. He couldn’t blame them for the hysteria; the human race, and life in general, had just gone through hell and back. They couldn’t find themselves able to trust anything that came from the sky.

“ETA on Stark?!” One of the police screamed into the scanner as a hysterical mother reached across the police line to grab onto the strap of his vest. 

“Now,” Tony buzzed through the com just as Iron Man landed in the center of the chaos. “Friday, scan the landing site.” The man’s voice was cold and mechanical. He was going through the motions; putting on a front so that it looked as if Iron Man was still a stable man with the ability to protect others.

“You got this?” Steve asked one of the officers as the crowd seemed to calm almost immediately in the presence of their hero. A pang of jealousy flared through his chest as they stared to Iron Man for help; as they relied on Tony for the answers that he had been able to give for so long. But he was no longer the same Captain America that the citizens had cherished. 

“Yea, go.” The deputy nodded his head towards the crash site. Steve, ever so grateful, nodded in thanks before jogging across the space to stand beside Tony.

“Signs of life,” Tony muttered, moving the concentration of nanobots from his helmet towards his hand in the form of a blade. The smooth rolling of bots as their metal bodies glided over one another was like a scene from a science fiction movie. But wasn’t that Steve’s life now? 

“Come out.” Tony growled stepping forward, blade wielded in a striking pose. A look of pure hatred stretched across his features.

“Jesus Christ kid!” A crotchety voice gasped as a small black claw emerged from the smoke. “Please tell me you aren’t allowed to drive on this god forsaken planet!”  
“I was doing just fine unti--”

“Peter...” Tony gasped as a brunette teenager emerged from the smoke, body clad in the infamous red and blue Spider suit. Steve turned quickly, jaw clenching as he stormed away from the site. He couldn’t handle the way that Tony would undoubtedly rush towards the teenager and feel whole again. But he did hear the kid gasp as Tony wrapped his arms around his chest and tugged him to his chest.

“Don’t let the media see the kid’s face.” Steve whispered as he surged back towards the barrier. The crowd was erupting with screaming cheers and rumors as Tony ushered the kid away from the visual of the citizens. He would probably make a big press conference later of the return of New York’s hero. For that, Steve couldn’t allow himself to be mad. After all, it wasn’t the teenager’s fault that he had been killed in the first place. Steve should have been happy that he had returned in one piece. 

But he couldn’t find it in himself to find the joy.

 

It was weeks later when Steve really got to meet the kid. He had been locked in the medbay, kept away from the outside world while he recovered. Tony had buzzed around the compound, happier than he had been in so long. But, he had to attend meetings and conferences with Pepper. And the kids aunt—May, as she had introduced herself one night over a cup of hot tea—had to return to work to deal with the ever growing after math. Steve had been put in charge of keeping an eye on him—making sure that he stuck to the bed and didn’t try to over exert himself.

But Steve couldn’t even bring himself to worry about it. The kid had been in and out of consciousness since arriving in the med bay. He’d blearily open his eyes for about ten minutes at a time, and then would be back under sedation.

“Cap...” The kid’s raspy voice broke Steve from the book he had been reading. Or at least he had been pretending to read. “Cap,” He gasped staring at the man through thick eyelashes.

Steve tensed his jaw, but put the book aside to glance at the brunette.

Not his fault, Steve reminded himself as he forced that winning Captain America smile to his face. 

“Hey champ,” His own voice creaked and cracked like he was strained to just have the conversation. “How are you feeling?”

“Cap...” The teenager reached out, hand doing its best to wave the man over. His lips were pursed in exhaustion with the movement. “Wakanda.”

“Wakanda?” Steve frowned, brow furrowing as he scooted closer. To his knowledge, Wakanda didn’t make themselves known until just before Thanos and his follows had invaded. It had barely made front news cover when the titan landed on Earth.

“He’s in Wakanda.” Underoos—as Tony so lovingly referred to the kid—smiled letting his head collapse back against the plush pillow. “Call him.”

“Who’s in...” Steve sighed as the kid’s breathing leveled out. Then all of the logic had clicked into place. If they had both been locked in the soul stone, then Underoos knew Bucky, and maybe his best friend had mentioned to the kid that Steve would be waiting on him? “W-wait, hey! Who’s...”

“Mr. Rogers,” FRIDAY buzzed over the intercom. “You have a phone call on the main phone. Patching through to the monitor.”

“Thank you?” Steve frowned, allowing himself to fall back into his chair. A screen popped up on the wall across from the bed.

“Steven,” T’Challa’s voice echoed through the room as the camera—no doubt handled by Princess Shuri—wobbled a bit.

“One sec, one sec!” Her voice buzzed from the background. “I don’t have white boy in the angle!”

“I...Shuri,” T’Challa chuckled inn exasperation. “My apologies, Steven. But it seems that you have left something behind when you returned.” The man winked as the camera panned across Shuri’s slowly recooperating lab to land on none other than James Buchanan Barnes. The raven haired man waved, his face crested in exhaustion as he smiled towards the screen.

“Hey pal.” His voice cracked with a weariness and familiarity that Steve had yearned to hear for months. “Sorry it took so long.”

“Buck...” Steve whispered hoarsely. His voice was hard to find when, sitting on the screen before him, was the man he had been searching for since everything had started to return to normal. “I’m...I’m so glad...”

“Me too, pal.” His friend smiled warmly. “Me too.”


End file.
